Wollman presents a fine, even-handed study of rock musicals on the New York stage. She supplies both a history suitable for undergraduates and sections of analysis helpful to an advanced readership. Six historical chapters commence with a look at individual songs in Broadway revues of the 1950s and in Bye Bye Birdie (1960). The chronological narrative continues through such landmarks as Hair (1967), Godspell (1971), Dreamgirls (1981) and Rent (1996). The author makes good use of a wide array of sources, both secondary and primary, including her own surveys and observations of audience response and extensive personal interviews with the creators of the shows discussed.

Between the chapters are what Wollman describes as ‘interludes which focus on broader issues surrounding rock, the musical theater, and their relationship’ (p. 7). The first of these covers what is probably the most important critical topic raised by her study: the rhetoric of authenticity surrounding rock music, wherein ‘the music itself is regularly celebrated as a transgressive and rebellious genre’ (p. 24). As Wollman weaves her historical narrative, she compellingly returns to this thread: the conflict between the aesthetics and ideologies of rock music and the disciplined and commercial practices of the musical stage. By the book's end, the critical and historiographic themes combine in gripping analyses, such as of The Who's Tommy (1993) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (1998) and, perhaps most tellingly, the unsuccessful Bright Lights Big City (1999). Along with Jessica Sternfeld's Megamusicals (2006), this volume fills a gap in the historical and critical literature, laying a strong foundation for more detailed studies of individual works. Here, in the third interlude, Wollman, too, focuses on the megamusical. While valuable, the discussion does less to resolve issues of the overlap between these two forms than to raise points for future analysts to explore, such as the history of amplification in Broadway theatres and comparative musical analyses of rock and megamusical scores. It should be noted that this publication lacks notated or recorded musical examples, which may disappoint musicologists. Nevertheless, Wollmann covers other crucial topics including taxonomic difficulties, the semiotics of space, audience expectations and behaviour, economics and marketing, the renovation of Times Square and ‘theatrical corporatization’ (p. 150). Wollman's well-balanced discussions of these issues make her volume an essential addition to the burgeoning field of musical theatre scholarship.